In the Sweet Pie and Pie
In the Sweet Pie and Pie is the 58th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959. This short marked the final appearance of supporting actor Richard Fiske. A perfect foil for the Stooges, Fiske's promising career was cut short when he was killed in action during World War II. Plot Tiska (Dorothy Appleby), Taska (Mary Ainslee) and Baska (Ethelreda Leopold) Jones, three snippy society girls, are willed an inheritance so long as they are married, but their fiances postpone their engagements. Their shrewd lawyer Diggins (Richard Fiske) suggests they marry three death row inmates (the Stooges) to retain the dough; once they are married, they get their inheritance, the convicts are hung, and can marry their fiances free and clear. They do so, but the boys are pardoned by the governor, and as the girls celebrate their new bout of widowhood, the Stooges make their way into their house and make themselves at home. Mortified, the devious debutantes try to think up an excuse to divorce their new beaus and decide to force them to become society gentlemen, something they feel the Stooges will be unable to accomplish. After enrolling the Stooges in an ill-fated dance lesson, and after finding them to be more accommodating to entering society after Moe realizes what they are up to. Diggins suggests that the girls throw a formal party, hoping the Stooges will make a shambles of the evening. They do, of course, and the evening ends with the Stooges first genuine pie fight. Diggins chastises the boys for their social ineptness and threatens to annul their marriages at once. However, the girls have had enough of Diggins and decide to remain married to the Stooges. They along with the other guests in attendance strike back at Diggins by covering him in pie from head to toe. Pie fights Larry Fine recalled that the most grueling scenes in this film involved pies: Sometimes we would run out of pies, so the prop man would sweep up the pie goop off the floor, complete with nails, splinters, and tacks. Another problem was pretending you didn't know a pie was coming your way. To solve this, Jules would tell me 'Now Larry, Moe is going to smack you with a pie on the count of three.' Then Jules would tell Moe, 'Hit Larry on the count of two!' So when it came time to count, I never got to three, because Moe crowned me with a pie! Notes *''In the Sweet Pie and Pie'' makes references to several popular songs/series' of the era: **Moe's comment "I am The Shadow" parodies the 1940 Columbia radio serial The Shadow **"Bill Stein," who broadcasts a "jerk-by-jerk" description of the hanging of the Mushroom Murder Mob, is a parody of real-life sportscaster Bill Stern. **The title In the Sweet Pie and Pie is a play on the old song, "In the Sweet By and By"; the names of the sisters, Tiska, Taska, and Baska, were a play on the song, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"; Curly's comment "I Hear a Rhipsody" parodies the 1940 song "I Hear a Rhapsody". * Footage was borrowed and later reused for In the Sweet Pie and Pie: **The dancing lesson sequence was lifted from Hoi Polloi. **The cell block footage was re-used in Beer Barrel Polecats. **Several shots from the pie fight recycled in Pest Man Wins. References *Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. pp. 193. ISBN 0-9711868-0-4. Category:Three Stooges films